The last of these sixteen names,
we come to this fellow named Jephthah. Gideon Barak Sampson
and Jephthah. And his story is found over in
Judges 11. So go over there to Judges chapter
11. Again, this is another story. Great faith given to a man that
causes him to do what flesh and blood cannot do. This man is
called by God and given this faith and enables him, makes
him take a vow that flesh and blood cannot do, would not do
otherwise. And this story of Jephthah is
a mystery and it's tragic unless we look at it by faith. I don't know how many of you
have ever read this. Well, we've looked at it before, but it's
tragic unless you see it by faith. You see it as a type of Christ
and you see it as an example of every All right, look at verse
1, Judges 11. Now Jephthah the Gileadite was
a mighty man of valor. He was a son of a harlot. Gilead
begat Jephthah. This man was born of a harlot. And it says his brethren, verse
2, Gilead's wife bare him sons, and his wife's sons grew up.
They thrust out Jephthah and said unto him, Thou shalt not
inherit in our father's house, you the son of a strange woman."
We're in Judges 11. So this Jephthah fellow was born
of a sinful woman. He was rejected, cast out by
his brethren. But God called him a mighty man. And the Lord used Jephthah to
be the captain of Israel's salvation, to defeat the enemies of his
people. But in order for him to do that,
he had to make a covenant, a vow, to sacrifice his only begotten
to God. If God would defeat his enemies,
he would sacrifice his only begotten, well-beloved child. Beautiful picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Those of you who know the gospel,
what a type of Christ that is. Made of woman. Sinful flesh. Made of the likeness of sinful
flesh. And despised and rejected of his brethren. Despised and
rejected. But God sent him to be the captain
of his people's salvation. But in order to do that, Christ
had to take a covenant. to sacrifice himself. God's only
begotten agreed to sacrifice himself that the enemies of God
might be defeated. That's the type of Christ there. And like the daughters of Israel,
after this story is over with, the daughters of Israel, they
remembered, and it was a custom, to talk about Jephthah's daughter,
whom Jephthah sacrificed or vowed. And it was a custom in all Israel
to meet together four times a year to remember Jephthah's vow and
Jephthah's daughter. And that's why we're here today.
We're here to remember our Lord Jesus Christ and that great sacrifice
He made. So that's the type of cry. But
now in keeping with these examples of faith, all right? Are you
with me? Jephthah is a man. And God gives
him this faith, which He gives to every believer. Every believer
is going to, to a degree, do what Jephthah did. He's like
Jephthah, every believer, like Abel, like Enoch, like Noah and
so forth. All right, look at it again.
All right, verses 1 and 2, it says that he was a mighty man,
son of a harlot. A sinful man, yet God calls him
a mighty man. A Gileadite. What is a Gileadite?
Well, they're just common. They're poor people. The Gileadites
were poor people. Common, lowly, poor people. That's
all of them. By nature in it. Poor. Common. Sinners. Sons of Adam. All of
them. But God calls this man a mighty
man. Why? How? Through God. By faith. By faith. Faith which God gives,
Scripture says, is mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. Mighty. Overcome. Or else we'll
be overcome. Right? We're weak. Unless God
gives us the power of His might, who is He that overcometh? Faith. Faith given to a mighty man. Do you reckon Jephthah thought
of himself as a mighty man? Look at verse 3. Jephthah fled
from his brother. See that? I thought he was a
mighty man, courageous and bold. He ran from his brother. Peter, a good timer, you know,
going to stand up and take on the world as long as Christ was
with him, as long as Christ had his hand on him. Just as soon
as Christ took his hand off of him, he's a coward, fleeing from
a—fleeing. They all fled, didn't they? And
so did we. So are we. Let not the mighty
man glory in his might. Wise man is wisdom. Him the glory
of living, glory in the Lord. The only might that Jephthah
had, like Samson, was of the Lord. Noah wasn't. All these
stories. It says, Noah, God said, I've
seen you righteous. Why? Did Noah was a better man
than anybody else? No. Noah found grace. Why was Samson more powerful
than the other man? Huh? His hair. Come on. You think hair would make a man
strong? I don't know. By his grace, God's grace, by
his Spirit, saith the Lord. Same with Jephthah. Not by might,
not by power, but it's by my Spirit, saith the Lord. Without
me, you can do nothing. And I know that Jephthah didn't
think of himself too highly as he ought. And look at who his
companions were, verse 3. It says they were gathered to
him, and verse 3, vain men. His companions. Jephthah was
a sinner, born of a harlot. He was a sinner, cast out, and
the fellows that gathered to him were all a bunch of cast
outs too. They were vain fellows too. Vain
means empty. And I couldn't help but think
about David down in that cave of Adullam. And every time I
think of that, I want to preach on it again. 1 Samuel 22. Oh, I love that story. David
was down in that cave of Adullam. And it says, there came to him
those that were in distress, those that were discontent, those
that were in debt, a bunch of vain fellows. And he became a
captain over them. Well, here we are, you vain fellows. You think I'm mighty? Well, I'm
not. Here we are, okay? We're going
to call on the Lord like Jephthah. Here's Jephthah's call. Down
in verse 5 and 6, the children of Ammon made war against Israel,
and the elders went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of I
said to Jephthah, come be our captain that we may fight with
the children of Ammon. And you know that Jephthah thought,
why are they calling me? Why would they call me? But this
was of the Lord. And this is my story. Why would
they call me to lead them when I have need of being led? Well, it was of the Lord, apparently,
obviously. Jephthah's call. So what did he do? Jephthah went
with the elders of Gilead. The people made him head and
captain over them. Hebrews 13 says, Remember them
that have the rule over you. Obey them. I hate to even quote that verse.
I really do. But that's what God said, didn't
He? Now, who is sufficient for these things? That's what Moses
kept saying all along. Oh, Lord, I can't do this. But
our sufficiency is of God. The man that looks to the Lord
will be led, and those people that follow him will be led of
the Lord. So that's our strength. And Jephthah says, called on
the Lord. He uttered, verse 11, all these
words before the Lord in Mesopotamia. That is, he uttered all his heart,
Lord God, of heaven. Here am I. Help me. Help me. Who am I? What do I have? You know, when
the Lord gave Solomon his wish, his heart's desire, he said,
You ask anything, anything, and I'll give it to you. Do you remember
what he asked? What did he ask for? He didn't ask for riches,
honor, glory. He asked for wisdom. The Lord
will give that. Any man like wisdom, he masks. That's where it comes from. Wisdom
from above. And God will give it liberally,
it says. So the Lord gave Solomon wisdom
more than any other man to lead these people. To lead these people. The Lord delighted in giving
that. So he gave, and Jephthah uttered all his words before
the Lord, and the Lord made him Now look at Jephthah's faith. In verses, and we'll not read
all of these for the sake of time, but verses 13 through 28,
I'll tell you what this is about here. There was a worldly king
of the Ammonites, and he accused Israel of stealing their land. He accused Israel of stealing
their land, and what he was doing was charging God with sin. God Almighty gave this land to
Israel, and Israel didn't take it. God gave it to them. God told
them to go through. all the people that went out
against Israel and God, so God destroyed them and gave them
their land. The meek shall inherit the earth. God has said so. We're not taking
it. We're not forcefully taking it.
God's given it, the new earth. But anyway, they accused Israel
of stealing their land. And you know, the same thing
is still happening today. The world is still demanding
of Israel, give us that little strip. Literally. Give us that
little Gaza Strip. That belongs to us, always has.
No, it doesn't. God, just with that little, literally,
is reminding the world that He's sovereign. He gave that land
to this group, this people named Israel. He gave it to them. And
you can't take it. Amazing. Amazing. The whole world
can go, we're going to take that. No, you're not. No, you're not. No, you're not. That continued
proof of God's absolute sovereignty to do with His own what He will.
The earth is the Lord's. It's the fullness thereof. And
they still want it back. They're not getting it back.
But the truth that we're going to learn here is God has a chosen
people. like Israel of old. God has given
His people the promised land. They didn't take it. They didn't
deserve it. Israel didn't deserve that land. They didn't deserve
anything but wrath, but God set His love on them, didn't He?
He said, I didn't choose you because you were more than anybody,
because you were better than anybody for your righteousness'
sake, but I just chose you because I would. Because I did. Because it pleased God to make
you His people. And to reveal His glory and His
might and His power in you. And to glorify His name before
the world who is profaning my name. You're going to glorify
my name. That's why He chose them. That's why He chooses any
sinner. Okay? Not because they're better.
No, no, no. Nobody deserves it. But God. According to His will. Chose
a people. Unless somebody argues that's
not fair, nobody deserves to be chosen. And God is rich in
mercy. Chose a people as the stars of
the sky. It would have been great mercy
if He had chosen one. But He's chosen a people that
nobody can number but Him. He chose a people. He has given
them the promised land. They don't take it. They don't
take it. He gives it. And the world hates
that. The world hates that. God's right
to be God. You can't do that. I have, God
says. We don't like that. It doesn't
matter. And they hate it, and there are
a couple of things they call Zionism. The world hates Zionism
and Calvinism. Zionism is that Israel, God's
chosen people, and they're His people, and that's His land and
all that. That's what they hate. Calvinism
is just the truth, that God is chosen people, and they're His
people. Put them in Christ and so on. And the world, like these people
in this story, wars against God and against His people. They
did. These Ammonites and this king went to war against Jephthah
and God's people. Went to war against them. You're
not going to defeat them. You're not going to defeat God's
people. Not at all. And look at Jephthah's
yet-to-believe God. He believed God was true and
every man a liar. He said in verse 27 down there,
he said, I haven't sinned against thee, but you do me wrong with
a war against me. The Lord, the judge, thee judge,
be the judge this day between the children of Israel and the
children of Ammon. And he is. Just like in the beginning it
says, God doth put a difference. God said, I'm going to show you.
Israel, I'm going to show you. I'm going to show the world how
God doth put a difference between Israel and Egypt. And who made
the theta difference? It's the Lord. It's the Lord. The Lord's the judge. And shall
not the judge of the earth do right? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. All right, now Jephthah's sacrifice. Oh, my. Oh, my, my, my, my. The vow he made. Down in verse
30 and 31, Jephthah, about to go into war and battle, he vowed
a vow unto the Lord and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver
the children of Ammon into my hands, Then it shall be that
whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me
when I return in peace from the children of Ammon shall surely
be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering." And do you know what happened?
He went out, and the Lord said, okay. And he went out to battle.
And the Lord gave great victory. Alright, great victory. And when
he came home, look at verse 33. Verse 34, Jephthah came to Mishpah
unto his house, and behold, his daughter came to meet him. His only child. His only child.
Look at it. She came out to meet him, happy,
dancing. She was his only child. He had
neither son nor daughter. And it came to pass when he saw
her, he rent his clothes and said, Alas, my daughter, thou
hast brought me very low. Thou art one of them that trouble
me. I have opened my mouth unto the Lord. I cannot go back."
Now go to Luke chapter 14 with me. Luke chapter 14. Many people
don't understand What we just read, many people don't understand
what our Lord said here in Luke 14. God's people do, though. He's given us an understanding. Every believer must take this
vow or else he cannot be a disciple. You know that? Now, whether or
not Jephthah actually sacrificed his daughter, I don't think he
did. I went on to say that she bewailed her virginity and her
friends came, and I believe she just remained unmarried. But
whether he did or not, that's not the important thing. The
important thing is the lesson. This was written for our learning.
It's the lesson here. Every believer must, by God's
grace, by His Spirit, take this vow or else he cannot be a disciple
of Christ. Look at it. Now verse 25, "...there
came great multitudes with him, and he turned and said unto them,
If any come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife,
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, his own life also,
he cannot be my disciple." Some of you are nodding your
head because you understand, don't you? You understand what
this means, what this is all about. You understand. Is the Lord telling us to hate
our family? No, on the contrary. He told
us to love our enemies. What does it mean by this? Hate. Well, I'll give you an illustration.
that was the fight. When Brother Walter Groover,
and most of you have heard this, but when Brother Walter Groover
felt called to go to Mexico as a missionary, alright, he had
a job at the steel mill and had a family of four at the time,
all of them born, okay, five. He had a family of five. You
think he loved his children? Of course he did. More than he
loved himself. He felt called to go to Mexico
as a missionary. So he did. He quit his job, sold
his house, and moved to Mexico. Then, back then, it was a hostile
land, wasn't it? Hostile, Dad. We went there a
few short years after that. It was hostile. Dangerous just
to live there. Walter thought he was going to
lose Betty one time. She got so sick and the children. It was just a hostile land. His
parents said this to him, trying to keep him from going
down there. They couldn't believe he was
going to do this, take his family, his wife and his children, down
to that land. And why was he doing it? Because he loved his Lord. He felt called of his Lord. He went down there for the Lord's
people. And oh, has the Lord blessed
that? Well, they said to Walter, you don't love your family. You hate your family. You can't
love your children and do something like that. You think that cut
him to his heart? Oh, yes, I love my children.
But I love my Lord more. Can you say that? We've got to be able to. We've
got to be able to. If my mother doesn't love my
Lord, If my father doesn't, if my children
don't, it doesn't matter as for me.
Can we say that? That's what Eli said. The Lord
said, I'm going to kill your sons. What did Eli say? That's
not right. That's not fair to my boys. I
love those boys. I'm quitting. No, no. It's the
Lord. It's the Lord. He'll do right.
He'll do right. And so it's just what it is here
in Jephthah's vow and what our Lord is saying is we prefer the
Lord's glory, honor, Lord's people, Lord's kingdom over our own flesh
and blood even. And that's not of ourselves. That can't be. That cannot be. That's of the Lord. Flesh and
blood won't do that. Flesh and blood will choose flesh
and blood every time. That's why this is a miracle.
That's why faith is a miracle. No way you're going to reject your family for God, except
by His power, by His Spirit. Look at Jephthah's zeal. I wanted
to get to this. This is amazing. This is wonderful.
Wonderful. I wrote this for our learning.
Judges chapter 12. Chapter 12, the men of Ephraim,
verse 1, gathered themselves together and confronted Jephthah. These men of Ephraim, and let
me make this story, let me simplify this so we don't have to read
it all. These men of Ephraim were supposed
to be the brethren of the Gileadites. They're all supposed to be Israel.
These men of Ephraim, they claim to believe the same God. Okay? Men of Ephraim. They're supposed
to be Jephthah's brethren, Gileadites' brethren. But, you know, Scripture
says they're not all Israel, they're all of Israel. And they're
not all Christians. They call themselves Christians.
How do you know the difference? Well, these fellows, these Ephraimites,
fought with Jephthah. They were supposed to be friends,
but they ended up fighting against them. And this is the way that
they were to be judged. They were to be judged. Down
in verse 7, it says, Jephthah judged Israel six years. And we're looking at Jephthah
as a type of every believer. 1 Corinthians 2 says he that
is spiritual judges or understands. He has an understanding. God
has given unto us an understanding, judgment, discernment. And it's
the same as Jephthah. Jephthah had this, made this
way of judging between the true and the false. They all looked
alike. They all called themselves brethren. They all looked alike,
born of the same flesh and blood and all that, said they believed
the same God and so on and so forth. Look at verse 5. The Gileadites took the passage
in the last line of verse 5. I'm trying to make this simple.
These Ephraimites came, and to distinguish them from the Gileadites,
they'd ask them, are you an Ephraimite? And if he said no, then verse
6, the Gileadites said, say now, they said unto him, say this,
we're going to find out whether or not you are one of us or you're
an enemy. All right, this is how. This
is the password, if you will. We're going to find out whether
or not you are with us or against us. Whether you're one of us
or not one of us. Whether you're a friend or foe.
This is how you're going to find out. Verse 6. Say shibboleth. And those Ephraimites, if he
said shibboleth. You see, he couldn't frame it,
he couldn't say it right. He couldn't say it right. They
were from a part of the country that their accent and so forth
couldn't, like, you know, Mexicans can't pronounce their I's like
we do. And you'll know them. And we
can't pronounce our, like they do. All right? If they said Sibyleth,
They took them and slew them. And there were 42,000 slain. And this is how they judged them. Say Shibboleth. And if a fellow said Sibboleth,
kill him. You're not one of them. You're
a secret enemy. Alright, what's this telling
us? Their speech condemned them,
in other words. Their speech condemned them. You think somebody
says, how terrible, how strict, how narrow. God wrote this down. God told Jephthah to do this.
This is how you're going to distinguish. God knows them all. He looks
them in the heart. God's not killing people because
they can't say words right. It goes a lot deeper than that.
These people were secret enemies and were fighting against them.
If they'd got in there, they'd eventually would have tried to
kill them again. Enemy. This is how the Lord had
them distinguished to different. The Lord tells us not to make
a man an offender for a word. Somebody says, lucky. I mean,
they're lost. That's hard to get out of your
system sometimes, isn't it? Southern people say, Lord, have
mercy. And they'd better learn to quit
saying that. That's taking the Lord's name in vain. There'd
better come a time that they learn to quit saying that. That's
taking the Lord's name in vain. He won't hold them guiltless
and continue to do that. If you say that, or if you don't,
anybody does, warn them. We'd get that out of our head.
But nevertheless, People do that, don't they? So you don't write
them off. What is being taught us here,
the truth revealed here, is this shibboleth the word means, flowing,
stream. Scripture says that out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. With the heart man
believeth unto salvation, and with the mouth confession is
made. If grace is in the heart, if God has saved a person by
his sovereign grace, that's what's going to come out of his mouth.
And that's how you're going to know. We're not infallible judges,
but it's pretty plain. It's pretty plain. What will
come out of the mouth of someone who's been saved by God's grace,
that's what will come out of their mouth. Salvation is of
the Lord. God's grace. Salvation by grace. So you ask
a man, you come across a person who claims to be a believer,
a Christian, and you say something about salvation by grace. And
you say, yeah, it's an offer. That's sybilleth. Oh, no, it's not an offer. No,
that's not right. You say, ask him about salvation.
He says, yeah, I made my decision. I let Jesus. That's sybilleth. Those things don't come out of
the mouth of God's people. I did anything. I made it all.
I let Jesus in. There's not one person in all
Scripture that ever said that. I accept him as my partner. Not
one person in all Scripture ever said that. I accepted Jesus.
Ha! That's syphilis. Is that too
narrow? You see, people, they may appear
to be, you know, sweet, kind of one of us. Oh, hold on there.
Their secret desire is to bring like Satan of their father, the
devil, who wants to bring God off his throne. We can't see
their heart. God does. And by their words,
they'll be condemned, he says. Didn't he say that? May it be
justified or condemned by His will. Let's talk about the will. Whose will is it? Okay, whose
will? And a man says, free will. That's
civilized. God's people, every one of them,
say, Thy will be done. It's Him that worketh all things
unto the counsel of His will. Anybody. Is this too narrow? That's too strict. And we don't
cut anybody off. We're not the ones slaying anybody.
No, no, no. God does that. And it's not for
a word, but those words come out of the heart, you see. If
a man knows that his will was hell-bent, his will was, I will
not. Have this man reign over me.
That's our will by nature. That was my will. I don't believe
that stuff. I don't want God. I don't want
that Jesus Christ. You'll never make a saint out
of me. Hell-bent will. Man, Martin Luther
wrote a whole book on the bondage of the will. When Adam in the
garden said, Not thy will, but my will. That's free will, isn't
it? Free will. So from then on, man, he plunged
mankind into the bondage of his will. His will is not to the
glory of God, not to the glory of himself. And his will is bound
by sin and darkness, and he is not willing. He will not come. He will not believe. He will
not thank God. He will not. His will is evil. Evil. That's freedom. That's
what man has. We're not splitting hairs over
doctrine here. No, no, no, no. This is how you
know who God's people are. And like I said, the Lord put
this in here for a purpose. Shibboleth, shibboleth, shibboleth.
Okay? You know, you know somebody,
just like you know somebody, whether they're from Connecticut,
so obvious, or North Carolina, don't you? Say I-C-E. John, go ahead. I-C-E. Pronounce that word. Put it in
the glass. I-C-E. I see, what is that frozen
water? I'll put you on the spot here. Say it, Kelly. Ice or ice? He's from North Carolina. It's obvious. They don't say
it that way in Connecticut, do they? Okay, this is an illustration.
God's people. How do you know them? How do you differentiate them?
True Christians. How? Is this too narrow, too
dogmatic? Make a man an offender for a
word? The world, free will, Arminium,
unbelievers. the world, even though they call
themselves Christian, even though they say it's for God's glory,
and even though they say it's Christ, you know, Christ saved
them and all that, or say, I, I, I, I, I, or I, I, I, it's
I this, I that, I did this, I did this, mama did this, preacher
did this, evangelist did this. No, sir. All of God's people,
without exception, say, He hath. Not unto us, not unto us, but
unto Him be the glory. Him, Him, Him. How do you say? He did it. How did you come? He called me. How did you repent? He gave it to me. Did you decide? No, He did. I played it. That's how you know.
That's how you know. And what seems so strict, of
Him, through Him, to Him, by Him, for Him. It's Him. It's
Him. Unto Him be... That's what everybody
in heaven is saying. Read it in the Revelation 5 and
on. Unto Him be all wisdom, power, might, strength, riches, honor,
glory. Unto Him, Him, Him, Him. Him. And what seems so strict and
narrow and severe back here, this sibileth or shibileth, God
put that in the Bible. And people hate that story like
they do most of everything else. But God put it there. It's a
truth hidden but revealed. And as I said, we're not to cut
anybody off. We're to love them. Pray for
their salvation. This is just how you know.